STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Not everyone is in tune with the "we are the 99-percent" vibe of Occupy Wall Street protesters.

As the protesters stormed Wall Street yesterday, Rep. Michael Grimm branded them "lowlifes," telling them to "buy a bar of soap," clean up and ship out.

Said Grimm: "It has been two months and now it's time for the OWS protesters to pack up their tents, buy a bar of soap and head home. ... These people have overstayed their welcome. It's time they get the heck out of New York City.

"Between the filth, smell, incessant noise and threat to public safety, they have done nothing but cause a nuisance to the people who work and live in Lower Manhattan."

Protester Katie Cuminskey, an associate professor at the College of Staten Island, took issue with the strong language.

"I live here. I live in his community. He's supposed to be representing me. And his statement seemed to be off-kilter, and ignorant, and out of touch with reality," she said. Do you support the protesters?
Grimm, a former small-business owner, also charged that protesters have "cost the city and surrounding businesses millions of dollars," adding, "It's time these people find a more productive use of their time. New Yorkers have had enough!"

Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) called his constituents "the hardworking 99-pecent who simply want to go to work, do their jobs and get home to their families without being hassled along the way. They already face one of the longest commutes in the nation without having to deal with this mob. It is reprehensible for these lowlifes to overrun the ferry or subways ... and add further hours to the trip home."

Meanwhile, former City Council candidate John Tabacco, a small-business owner from Annadale who calls himself "a member of the 53 percent who pay the taxes in this country," greeted OWS protesters massing in Lower Manhattan earlier in the day with a succinct message hand-printed on a neon-green sign: "Occupy a Desk."

Photos of Tabacco, clad in a business suit, and his brother, Derek Tabacco, holding a homemade sign with the legend "Occupy a Job" on Rector Street were picked up by international wire services.

"About 80 percent of the people we walked by gave us a thumbs up, told us 'good job' or 'God bless,'" said Tabacco, 43, CEO of locatestock.com. "We wanted to let them [the protesters] know that what they have been saying is not going unresisted. We've been talking to other small-business owners about smart ways to counter what is being said.

"They have no consolidated message; there are so many different factions. They are against corporate greed, but occupying a park does not advance their message."

Tabacco said Occupy Wall Streeters should instead be protesting federal government policy that offers corporations bailouts without throwing the same lifeline to small-business owners who have trouble getting a line of credit.

Tabacco ran for the North Shore City Council seat in a 2008 special election.

Derek Tabacco, 41, of Manhattan. is CEO of freethefan.com. The brothers grew up in Eltingville.